NATIONAL NEWS
A) Dainik Bhaskar group faces raids by Income Tax officials; Opposition CMs condemn action
One of the country’s largest media houses, the Dainik Bhaskar group, has come under the scanner of the taxmen. The Income Tax department launched extensive search operations and raids at multiple locations, including in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. According to sources, the raids/search operations by the I-T teams are underway at the group’s office in Delhi, Bhopal and Indore in Madhya Pradesh, Jaipur in Rajasthan, Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Mumbai in Maharashtra, and a few other locations also. More than 30 premises, including offices and residential premises of the promoters of the group, are being raided/searched by over 100 taxmen in a joint exercise launched on Thursday morning. In Bhopal, I-T personnel also searched the residence of Sudhir Aggarwal, the Bhaskar group’s promoter. On the website of the Dainik Bhaskar, one of the largest circulating Hindi dailies, the group has stated that scared of its coverage of floating dead bodies in the river Ganges during the pandemic, the government launched raids on the Bhaskar group. It added that besides the offices, the I-T sleuths are also raiding the residences of key personnel of the group. The taxmen have seized mobiles of the employees, it claimed, adding there was no woman in the I-T teams that came to raid the group’s offices and other premises. However, the sources in the I-T department maintain that the raids are being carried out following a tip-off the department received about alleged tax evasions by the group and its various companies. Headquartered in Madhya Pradesh, Dainik Bhaskar group has more than 60 editions operating in a dozen States in many languages. Meanwhile, Congress Rajya Sabha member and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh tweeted that tax officials are present at half-a-dozen premises of the group, including at its office at Press Complex in Bhopal.
B) Trinamool, BJP MPs scuffle in Rajya Sabha over Pegasus snooping row
Rajya Sabha proceedings took an ugly turn on Thursday when Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw rose to read out a statement on the Pegasus spyware episode, only to have TMC MP Shantanu Sen snatch his papers and tear them. Minutes later, after the House was adjourned, TMC and BJP MP nearly came to blows. Opposition members from many parties, including the TMC, Congress and the Left, were in the well of the House protesting against various issues when the incident took place. Their protests had led to two adjournments already, the first just a minute after the House convened at 11:00 a.m. and the second at 12:00 p.m. Vaishnaw struggled to read his statement in the din, when all of a sudden TMC MP Shantanu Sen snatched and tore the statement. Undaunted, Vaishnaw got another copy and tried to continue reading. But midway through the statement, he tabled it and the House was adjourned. The Minister’s statement was full of contradictions and white lies. So one of our members snatched and tore it, TMC chief whip Sukendu Sekhar Ray said. Later, according to the TMC, after the House adjourned and the live transmission was switched off, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Puri gestured to Sen, asking him to come to his seat. Rajya Sabha, unlike the Lok Sabha, can seek clarifications on a Minister’s statement. In Thursday’s din, however, that opportunity was lost. When the government is using military grade spyware, the supposition that this is a question that the IT Minister can answer is preposterous, O’Brien said. He added that only a few members could seek clarifications and that too for a very short time.
C) Farmers debate agriculture laws at parallel Kisan Sansad outside Parliament
A small group of 200 farmers reached Parliament Street on Thursday to begin a Kisan Sansad protest, which ran in parallel to the proceedings at Sansad Bhawan barely a kilometre away. We are showing them how to conduct a Parliament with knowledgeable discussions. The government says the farmers are uneducated, they say they need to educate the farmers about the impact of these three farm laws. Listen to the debates here. Is it not clear that the farmers have understood how their lives and livelihoods will be hurt by these laws? said All India Kisan Sabha general secretary Hannan Mollah. These laws will lead to the end of the existing mandi system and MSP procurement. It will result in farmers, agricultural labourers and mandi workers being deprived of their jobs. And when the private mandis come, replacing the government mandis, their infrastructure will only benefit Ambani and Adani, not farmers, said Jasbir Kaur, committee member of Punjab Kisan Union, speaking during the first hour of the Sansad. She was one of only seven women among the protestors on Thursday. If the fields and crops of this country go into the hands of corporates, if they take control of our harvests and our grain, then it is the people who will go hungry and face starvation. That is why this is the protest not just of farmers, but of the people. This is a jan sansad, said Raminder Singh Patiala, a leader of the Kirti Kisan Union. Half of the protestors were from Punjab, where the agitation has been strongest, with the other half hailing from other States. Regarding the Pegasus issue that has consumed Parliament’s time, several farm leaders privately said they suspect they may also be targets of surveillance. Even as the Parliament session was ongoing, more than 20 MPs from Kerala arrived at the Kisan Sansad to express their solidarity, but were not allowed on the farmers’ stage. We just want to say that we stand with the farmers’ struggle. We don’t see this as a party issue, MPs from Kerala are in support across party lines, said V. Sivadasan, a Rajya Sabha MP from the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
D) Amarinder to attend Sidhu’s induction as Punjab Congress head
Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh will be participating in the Congress party function on July 23, where his detractor Navjot Singh Sidhu will take charge as Punjab Congress president along with four working presidents. Ahead of the function, the Chief Minister has invited all Congress legislators, Members of Parliament and senior party leaders to Punjab Bhawan on Friday, asking them to leave together for the installation of the new Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee team at the party office. Chief Minister @Capt_Amarinder Singh has invited all @INCPunjab MLAs, MPs and senior party functionaries at Punjab Bhawan for tea at 10 am on Friday. They will all then go to Punjab Congress Bhawan together from there for the installation of the new PPCC team, said a tweet from Chief Minister’s official handle on Thursday. After Sidhu’s elevation as Punjab Congress chief, Capt. Amarinder has been maintaining that he would not meet the former unless he (Sidhu) publicly apologised for his personally derogatory social media attacks against him (Capt. Amarinder). The All India Congress Committee on July 18 appointed Sidhu as president of the Punjab Congress Committee, and four working presidents — Sangat Singh Gilzian, Sukhwinder Singh Danny, Pawan Goel, and Kuljit Singh Nagra. Nagra and Gilzian extended the invitation to the Chief Minister, which was signed by over 50 legislators, including Sidhu. The move is being seen as a show of strength and a pressure tactic in the backdrop of Capt. Amarinder’s continued opposition to Sidhu’s elevation as the party’s State chief.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) Israel appoints commission to review NSO.
Israel has established a commission to review allegations that the NSO Group’s controversial Pegasus phone surveillance software was misused, the head of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee said on Thursday. The defence establishment appointed a review commission made up of a number of groups, lawmaker Ram Ben Barak said. When they finish their review, we’ll demand to see the results and assess whether we need to make corrections, the former deputy head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency added. Pegasus has been implicated in possible mass surveillance of journalists, human rights defenders and 14 heads of state. Their phone numbers were among some 50,000 potential surveillance targets on a list leaked to rights. Group Amnesty International and Paris-based Forbidden Stories. NSO has said the leak is not a list of targets or potential targets of Pegasus. NSO chief executive Shalev Hulio told Army Radio on Thursday that he would be very pleased if there were an investigation, so that we’d be able to clear our name. He also alleged there was an effort to smear all the Israeli cyber industry. Mr. Hulio said the company could not disclose the details of its contracts due to issues of confidentiality, but said he would offer full transparency to any government seeking more details.
B) Foiled attempt to kill President: Madagascar
Madagascar said on Thursday it had foiled an attempt to assassinate President Andry Rajoelina and arrested six people, two of whom, according to diplomatic sources, were French nationals. Several foreign and Madagascar nationals were arrested on Tuesday, July 20, as part of an investigation into an attack on state security, prosecutor Berthine Razafiarivony said in a statement. According to evidence in our possession, these individuals devised a plan to eliminate and neutralise various Madagascan figures, including the head of state, she said. The statement gave no details about the alleged operation. Public Security Minister Fanomezantsoa Rodellys Randrianarison said six arrestshad been made, comprising a foreigner, two dual nationals and three Madagascans. The police had information about this affair for months, he told a news conference on Thursday. They swooped to make simultaneous arrests in different locations and seized money and weapons, he said. There are also official documents which prove their involvement, he said.
C) Categorically stand by findings of Pegasus Project: Amnesty International
Amnesty International on July 22 said it categorically stands by the findings of the Pegasus Project and asserted that the data is irrefutably linked to potential targets of NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware. The comments by Amnesty International came after some media reports quoting a few Israreli journalists said that the human rights group has claimed that it never said that the recently leaked phone numbers was specifically a list of numbers targeted by Pegasus spyware. Amnesty claimed that the false rumours being pushed on social media are intended to distract from the widespread unlawful targeting of journalists, activists and others that the Pegasus Project has revealed. Amnesty International categorically stands by the findings of the Pegasus Project, and that the data is irrefutably linked to potential targets of NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware. The false rumours being pushed on social media are intended to distract from the widespread unlawful targeting of journalists, activists and others that the Pegasus Project has revealed, Amnesty International said in a statement.
